I already have a pair, am picking up 12 adults/juviniles and an undetermined amount of fry, they are going in a 60 litre species only tank, only other thing in with them will be a pair of bristlenose to keep the tank clean.

Fish are in and settled, have counted 11 decent sized ones upto now but the shells they are in are a bit gruesome with algae and moss. The bristlenose in the tank are juvinilles, I got them from Tattoo who told me that they would be fine with the multis in the same tank..

I have manually cleaned the shells as the amount of muck floating around the tank was unbelieveable, the sink was black and could not see the bottom after i had finished. fish are all fine and bristlenose are now getting to work, have had bristlenose at a higher ph for a couple of weeks with no probs, have been checking stats every day as we are in a soft water area so have added coral to bring it up gradually.

Who’s tattoo Baz? Got to say I don’t think Ancistrus will make the best tankmates for the multis long-term. If they’re tank-breds they might survive the alkalinity but their adult size is the thing I’d worry about.

whats the idea in having the ancistrus in the tank bud?.when i had them i left them on their own and cleaned the tank if and when it needed it.it could put your multi’s of breeding when the ancistrus start moving the shells about as they can.

Tattoo is a breeder up near me, has breed multi’s and all sorts of L numbers, is well known on TFF, I have the bristlenose in the tank first so i could feed them up before putting them in main tank, they are only short term housemates until tank settles down as bloke i got fish and shells off has not been the most astute fishkeeper, they are now on the shells cleaning the algae off which is what i want them to do..